Alternate Ending
by Silvermistwolf
Summary: This is my version of the wolf's rain series, starting before they find cheza.  It starts with Kiba and the others running into a town as others are running out. They get caught in the cross fire and Kiba is injured and seperated from the group.


Character Coloring Chart:

Kiba- white male

Toboe- red male- bracelets

Tsume- grey male, X-shaped scar

Hige- large brown male, collar

Shadow: black female; blue eyes

River: red-brown female; green eyes

Tsuki: pale silver-grey female

Nigra: slender dark grey-black female

The snow swirled around them and the wind howled relentlessly. Four wolves, crusted in snow and frost, ran across the barren landscape toward the faint outline of a rundown frontier town. The blizzard was growing in intensity as they neared the town. The leader of the pack, Kiba, was nearly lost in the mass of white. Behind him, Tsume's dark grey fur had turned a shade similar to Kiba's. Behind the two, Hige and Toboe were struggling against the fierce wind and deep snow.

"Can we stop soon?" Toboe called, his whining nearly lost in the howling wind.

Hige gave Toboe a little push. "Yeah Kiba! This is ridiculous!"

"Do you two see any shelter out here other then that town?" Tsume snarled irritably, snapping his jaws in frustration. A mix of cold, frustration and exhaustion was making him cranky and a cranky Tsume was definitely not a good thing, in fact, it was just plain scary.

Kiba didn't reply. Instead the quiet white wolf simply kept walking, leaving no room for argument or stopping. The three others had no choice but to follow, like they always did.

Finally they reached the town. As they expected, walking down the streets in human form, people shied away from windows, pulled curtains over the windows and fled into allies. In almost every town it was the same. No one liked strangers, wolf or not but especially if they were wolf, not that anyone could tell. They walked in the same formation as they ran, Kiba leading, followed closely by Tsume, then Hige and finally Toboe close to Hige's elbow. This formation never seemed to change, running as wolves or walking as humans.

As they passed an alley, four wolves in human form sprang out; each carrying what looked like stolen meat. Kiba leapt out of the way just in time to avoid being knocked over by a girl with blue-black hair and icy blue eyes. Three other females ran out of the alley, each carrying stolen meat. Kiba caught the sounds of a yelling human and the sound of a gun being loaded.

"Move" growled a silver-haired girl, pushing Tsume roughly out of her way and running.

"Hey!" Hige yelled indignantly as he stumbled and nearly flattened Toboe.

"Get them!" yelled several angry voices.

Kiba turned and saw five or six merchants running toward them. "Get those punks! There's more of them up ahead!"

"Time to go" Hige said promptly.

No one argued, not even Kiba. The boys ran after the girls. Gunshots rang out behind them as the merchants continued chasing them. Noticing that Toboe was lagging, Kiba dropped back. The older boy shoved Toboe roughly toward Hige and Tsume.

"Keep going!" Kiba yelled. "I'll handle this."

"But…" Toboe protested.

Kiba glared. No argument.

The three others ran on. Kiba whirled around, bracing himself. Two men fell to a punch in the jaw, one other a punch in the gut. Three remained standing, trying to block of Kiba with their guns. Foolish humans. Kiba leapt at one, sinking his fangs into the man's neck. Just as he hit the ground again however, two loud gunshots rang in his ears. The boy, now in his wolf form, snarled and took off running.

Tsume, Toboe and Hige had stopped at a cave outside the town with the four girls, Shadow, Tsuki, River and Nigra. Now the three boys were waiting impatiently for Kiba's return. Toboe showed his worry plainly, Hige tried to lounge about and pretend not to be worried. Tsume leaned against the cave wall, acting like he didn't care when really his ears were pricked for the sounds of footfalls, human or wolf. The girls were further back, glaring toward the boys. Yes, they'd exchanged names but neither were comfortable with the other.

"We can't trust them" growled the girl with silver hair, Nigra.

"They're wolves" piped up Tsuki, the youngest in the group. "They won't hurt us!"

"Don't worry girls, if they try something, we'll just knock their lights out" Shadow, the leader, said leaning comfortably against the cave wall. Her eyes were closed and her black-blue hair was falling into her face a bit like it always did.

"I hear something" River said suddenly, her eyes looking toward the cave entrance. The boys were on their feet now, staring intently toward the entrance.

Kiba didn't know how long he'd been moving. All he knew was he was freezing, bleeding and his vision was getting blurry. His hip and side hurt horribly. Blossoms of scarlet had bloomed across his usually snowy pelt, dripping into the snow but quickly covered by the continually shifting snow. His head was down and his eyes were glazed and dull. Kiba was limping as quickly as he could though he didn't hear any hunters following him.

A cave loomed up ahead and the faint scents of his pack encouraged Kiba to go there. The white wolf was almost lost in the swirling white of the blizzard. He stumbled into the cave and was greeted at once by his pack.

Hige, enthusiastic and happy, nearly tackled Kiba until he saw the wounds. That made him stop. Toboe whimpered and tried to examine the wound only to nearly have his muzzle bitten, not by Kiba, but by Tsume. Tsume stood looked at Kiba through narrowed eyes. Though he didn't speak, Kiba heard him loud and clear. Kiba knew he was getting scolded for letting himself get shot, not once but twice. Kiba ignored his pack and the other females. Instead, he laid down near the back of the cave, panting. It didn't take long for a pool of scarlet blood to appear around him.

"Aren't you going to help him?" growled a dark haired girl with bright blue eyes.

Tsume shook his head. "He got himself into that mess he can fix it."

"He won't let us help anyway" Hige said. He leaned a bit closer and lowered his voice. "We just wait until he passes out."

Toboe however stood up and walked over to Kiba. The youngest member of the pack always seemed to get away with anything around Tsume and Kiba. Though neither wolf showed it, they acted as parents to the pup and Toboe was sure Kiba wouldn't try to bite him or snarl. Kiba turned head away, looking at the cave wall while Toboe examined his wounded hip and side. Toboe's wince was seen by all of the wolves.

After a long while no one spoke. A girl with red-brown hair, River, started a small fire while Tsuki went to help Toboe only to be sent away. When she went back to the others, Kiba's pack included, she shook her head.

"He said he could handle it but it looks awful" Tsuki said, her expression troubled.

"Don't worry too much, Kiba's been through worse" Hige said.

"Why do you follow him?" Shadow asked, brushing her dark hair away from her face. "He seems so...cold."

Tsume shrugged. "His 'instincts' got us this far."

"What were you doing in that city?" River asked.

"Getting out of the storm" Hige said. Hige glanced back toward Toboe and Kiba. "Now we're stuck here until the moon shows again."

"That might not happen. The moon's a rare thing to see this far north" Shadow said.

"Then we have a problem now don't we" Tsume said, arching an eyebrow.

"He looks strong, he'll be fine" Nigra said, waving a hand in Kiba's direction. "It was his own fault for getting shot in the first place."

Tsume growled and Hige frowned deeply at Nigra. "That's not true!" Hige snapped. "You got those merchants chasing us in the first place!"

"Well we can't just starve" Nigra snapped back.

"So we had to pay for it?" Tsume snarled, eyes narrowed.

"Stop it" said a new voice.

They all looked around. Kiba was limping toward them. One arm was wrapped around his ribs and he was leaning on Toboe and glaring toward his pack.

"Kiba!" Hige exclaimed happily, smiling widely at their recluse leader.

Kiba nodded and painfully slid down the wall of the cave, still a decent distance from them. He stared at the opposite wall as if trying to burn a hole in it with just his eyes. All too used to this behavior, Toboe, Tsume and Hige left Kiba be. Nigra, River, Shadow and Tsuki however, were interested.

"What's wrong with you?" Shadow asked, frowning at Kiba. "Your pack was worried about you, aren't you going to say something?"

"Let it be" Toboe advised, sitting between Tsume and Hige.

"The bastard gets like this a lot" Tsume grumbled, no real hate or anger in his voice, just his normal growl. He too had gotten used to Kiba's constant silence though it still pissed him off at times. "If he's like this it means he's fine."

Shadow however, wasn't satisfied with this. Her frown deepened and she got up, stalking over to Kiba with a firm frown on her face and eyes narrowed. Kiba looked up at her with his usual, cold, calm, calculating expression. They all knew he was sizing her up incase she proved a threat. Shadow opened her mouth to scold Kiba for neglecting his pack but the words never got out. Instead, the footfalls of humans came from outside the cave.

"Great" Nigra growled. "You're stupid leader led them right to us!"

"Shut up" Tsume growled. "If you hadn't been thieves, this wouldn't have happened!"

"Will you all knock it off?" Toboe and Tsuki implored.

"Quiet!" Shadow snapped.

Kiba got up silently. "I'll go. They know I'm the one they shot, they'll follow me, you can get away."

"But Kiba, you can't run like that!" Hige said, looking at the blood-soaked pant leg covering Kiba's wound.

The older boy narrowed his eyes. "Don't argue."

"Fine, we'll run together" Shadow said firmly, leaving no room for argument. "Kiba can do what he likes."

The others nodded. As the humans drew closer, the wolves burst from the cave, all running flat out. Rather then be in the front as he usually was, Kiba was lagging slightly, half on purpose, half because of his injury.

With a snarl Kiba veered off from the main group, running into the open wilderness.


End file.
